Modern networks are increasingly complex, spanning many edges as well as a mix of cloud and on-premises deployments. Fortinet was founded with the mission of providing a converged networking and security approach that empowers organizations to adopt new technologies without worrying about how it would impact their ability to manage and secure their environments.

And we've seen the demand for secure networking solutions skyrocket. In fact, we believe the demand for secure networking will overtake the pure networking market by 2030.

At the same time, businesses also contend with siloed security tools that don't work well together. They need a consolidated approach that gives them visibility, better performance, and peace of mind. A cybersecurity platform approach has emerged to address this need for consolidation in the market to support enterprises in reducing complexity and allow for faster threat response times.

These two concepts, convergence and consolidation, guide how Fortinet designs our products and advises our customers and partners. And today we're pleased to announce major enhancements to products and services that deliver on both convergence and consolidations at Accelerate 2023, our flagship customer and partner conference.

Here's a look at our news:

Secure Networking: Convergence of Networking and Security

Our Secure Networking solutions enable the convergence of networking and security by integrating our products through a single operating system, FortiOS. Today, at Accelerate 2023, we're announcing improvements and updates to deepen unified management across our secure networking portfolio, which we define as these five categories:

• Hybrid mesh firewall, a new term coined by Gartner, "enables security policy controls to be defined and enforced between workloads, and between users and workloads connected on any network in on-premises first environments."¹
• Secure SD-WAN for flexible, on-demand access to business-critical applications, whether in the cloud, the data center, or on-premises.
• Single-vendor SASE converges cloud-delivered security and networking to simplify operations across hybrid networks.
• Universal ZTNA for flexible application access control that applies zero-trust controls no matter where the user or application is located.
• WLAN/LAN that offers the industry's first access point integration with SASE.

Starting today, IT professionals can manage all of these secure networking components through FortiManager, our centralized management solution. Fortinet is the only vendor empowering CIOs with consistent security, management, and analytics across the entire hybrid network.

Cybersecurity Platform: Consolidation of Vendors and Functions

Many enterprises are looking to consolidate point products to improve the efficiency and efficacy of their security, and a broad, integrated, and automated platform such as the Fortinet Security Fabric can help them make this a reality. Today, at Accelerate, we announced that we are expanding the Security Fabric with new capabilities to enable advanced threat prevention and coordinated response across networks, endpoints, and clouds.

These new enhancements enable organizations to more easily build a unified cybersecurity platform of integrated solutions that span across five critical markets including endpoint security, SOC automation, threat intelligence, identity and access, and application security.

NSE Training Updates

Operational Technology Security: Convergence of IT and OT Networks

Fortinet also recently released updates to our operational technology (OT) solutions. OT uses hardware and software to detect or cause a change through the direct monitoring and/or control of industrial equipment, assets, processes, and events. On March 1, we launched new and enhanced innovations to help organizations better protect their OT environments, including a new rugged next-generation firewall for harsh environments. 

The increased convergence of OT and IT networks and the need for supply chain access has increased the risk across OT industries such as manufacturing, energy, utilities, medical, transport, and critical infrastructure. For more details on Fortinet innovations, and how they help organizations reduce their cyber risk across OT and IT networks, dive into our press release.

Cybersecurity, Everywhere You Need It

More than 635,000 customers worldwide have adopted Fortinet's converged solutions and our consolidated security approach through the Fortinet Security Fabric. A converged and consolidated approach has a significant positive impact: improved security, cost savings, and more efficient business processes.

Fortinet's Accelerate news showcases our commitment to convergence and consolidation. And we don't plan on slowing down. We're going to continue delivering cutting-edge solutions well ahead of industry shifts so our customers and partners can thrive.

1 Gartner, Hype Cycle for Workload and Network Security, Charlie Winckless, 18 July 2022.

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